1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a curling stone for curling, consisting of a handle, a housing for the support of gliding and braking elements, and a bottom glide plate covering the bottom side of the housing and optionally provided with gliding bumps, part of the gliding surface being formed by a brake device the braking surface of which is affixed to a support for sliding movement in an axial direction of the curling stone relative to the remaining gliding surface cover and moveable against spring bias in the housing to adjust the brake action, the brake device consisting of a plurality of independently moveable brake surface supports arranged concentrically and symmetrically around the axis of the curling stone on a common bracket which is axially adjustable to a limited extent relative to the curling stone, each support being provided with its own spring suspension.
Such a curling stone may be easily adjusted without further auxiliary means in accordance with temperature induced changes in the antifrictional properties of the ice as they occur in practice.
2. The Prior Art
A curling stone of the kind mentioned above is known from Austrian patent No. 354,921. Even though that curling stone permits satisfactory adjustments to different gliding properties of ice, it has for several reasons been found to warrant improvement. Collisions with other curling stones may lead to unseating of the housing so that the hand wheel for adjusting the brake device is pressed against the lower flange at the end of the handle and is blocked, thus making further adjustments of the brake device impossible. Furthermore, in operation, such major components as handle, housing, and bottom glide plate with its steel ring may shift, since unlike in conventional curling stones the handle is not threadedly connected to the housing and to the bottom glide plate. Moreover, the use of coil springs, notwithstanding the advantages yielded by them, has been found to be disadvantageous as the brake surface supports cannot be quickly replaced.